3. Parliamentary replies
Written reply to PQ on Ten-Year analysis of GDP growth relationship with total and resident employment and real resident income, and divergence of value-added and resident employment growth across sectors
4 November 2026
Question:
Mr Victor Lye: To ask the Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) (a) whether the relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and (i) total employment (ii) resident employment and (iii) real resident employment income has weakened over the past 10 years; and (b) which sectors have seen the largest divergence between value-added and resident employment growth.
Written Answer by Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Dr Tan See Leng
1. The relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and employment growth has remained broadly intact over the past 10 years. Specifically, GDP growth and employment growth were higher in the period of 20191 -2025, compared to 2015-2019. However, real wage growth moderated to 1.3% per annum in 2019-2025, compared to 3.4% per annum in 2015-2019, due to high inflation following the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic2 (refer to Table 1).
Table 1: Growth of GDP, Employment and Income, 2015-2025 (% p.a.)
Period | Real GDP | Overall | Resident | Real Median |
2015–2019 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 3.4 |
2019–2025 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
Sources: DOS, MOM
2. At the sectoral level, the manufacturing and information & communications sectors saw the largest divergences in real value-added and resident employment growth in the last 10 years (refer to Table 2). This was largely due to strong productivity growth in these sectors.
Table 2: Growth of Value-Added and Resident Employment by Sector, 2015-2025 (% p.a.)
Sector | Real Value- | Resident | Difference |
Manufacturing | 5.0 | -1.3 | 6.3 |
Information & | 9.5 | 4.2 | 5.3 |
Wholesale & Retail Trade | 2.8 | -0.8 | 3.6 |
Real Estate | 2.5 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
Finance & Insurance | 5.2 | 3.5 | 1.7 |
Professional Services | 3.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 |
Construction | 0.9 | -0.7 | 1.6 |
Accommodation & Food | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
Transportation & Storage | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 |
Other Services Industries | 2.3 | 2.0 | 0.4 |
Administrative & Support | -2.2 | 1.6 | -3.8 |
Sources: DOS, MOM
Note(s) to Question No(s) 45:
1 The two sub-periods within the decade have been chosen to avoid using 2020 as the end or start year for the sub-periods given the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
2 Nominal wages, as measured by median nominal gross monthly income, grew by 4.0% p.a. in 2019-2025, slightly faster than the 3.7% p.a. recorded in 2015-2019. However, CPI-All Items inflation accelerated from 0.3% p.a. in 2015-2019 to 2.7% p.a. in 2019-2025.